Watched: 06/21/2025
Format: Hallmark
Viewing: First
Director: Terry Ingram
Job: Receptionist/ Would-Be Baker
Location of story: Helen, Georgia (which is apparently a real place themed like a German village?)
new skill: ruining two men's lives
Man: Lea Coco (no, really)
Job of Man: Italian Restauranteur
Goes to/ Returns to: has returned home
Event: National Gingerbread Competition
Food: oh, Gingerbread, man. So much Gingerbread.
Well, whoops.
I thought I'd watched this one, but... and follow me here... I found out through an odd way that I had *not* watched it. I had confused a Valentine's movie about chocolate with The Sweetest Christmas (2017) while managing the Chabert-a-Tron 3000 and checked it off.
One, rude. Two, it is kooky.
A preview of the coming Lacey Chabert Christmas Ornament, coming in 2025, was released this week. Thanks to my algorithm now pushing Chabert News my way, I'd seen a pic of the ornament and was like "that pose is really specific, as is the dress".
I thought "oh, maybe it's the dress she wore in that Belgian movie" and Googled "The Sweetest Christmas" after reviewing my list thinking that was the name, and saw that the movie I was thinking of was actually the Valentine's movie. And I realized: oh no. There's a movie I missed. I must fix this.
So. I did. And here we are.
But, because I know that you want to know: I think the ornament is a mix of her 2019 Hallmark pic
and this dress from last year's Hallmark presentation.
Or not. I am not Googling further. I have previously mentioned I am already worried I'm on an FBI watch list. And pictures of Chabert in red dresses are not hard to come by, so I likely am wrong.
Please don't question me, Feds.
So, The Sweetest Christmas.
Uh, yeah. So, Chabert is a baker? Chef? Who has returned to her small hometown after something something, and she is no longer a chef/ baker?
She is obsessed with gingerbread and the making of gingerbread houses, which I kinda get as gingerbread is good.
She's working as a receptionist for her boyfriend's construction company, and her boyfriend is written as the most astoundingly obtuse Other Man to grace maybe any of the movies in this series.
She thinks he's going to propose when Other Man takes her to a surprise dinner at what turns out to be her ex-boyfriend's (read: Man's) family restaurant. It all falls apart as all he's doing is making her his Office Manager, and she dumps Other Man.
She has, however, already entered herself as a possible contestant into The National Gingerbread Competition, and is invited to be a semi-finalist.
As she inserts herself haphazardly into the life of her high school boyfriend and his overly precocious child, she preps for the contest while also... planning an entire corporate Christmas party in like three days?
The rest is an odd amount of giggling, baking, some tickling, and misunderstandings that only happen in Hallmarklandia. And, if ever there was a Black Supporting Character who is entirely devoted to what our leads are up to, it's Ralphie in this movie.
Is it stupid?
Ugh.... kinda? I like saying no, but....
I mean, a Gingerbread competition seems legit, but how it plays out... feels very much not like a national competition. It does feel like a really solid year for the local Junior League baking competition, and that's no shade.
It also kind of feels like Chabert's character is forcing a relationship with the ex-boyfriend. Like, he seems like he has a lot going on with his divorce, dead parents, raising a son, a restaurant... and she's like "my gingerbread competition should be your focus. Also, I just broke up with a guy I thought was going to marry me, and you were here, so... You need to tap in."
Also, no dude outside of a romance novel or movie has ever said "it just wasn't meant to be".
Chabert herself is solid. She chuckles a *lot* in this movie, and I kinda wish I'd tracked if this is more common in movies directed by Terry Ingram, who does a ton of Chabert movies (and is therefore my most watched Director this year).
But given the script, she's fine, I guess.
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